Chairman of the Electric Telegraph
Company (which he was active in the formation of) until 1856

1849

Ricardo was instrumental in
obtaining the repeal of the Navigation
Acts in 1849.

1855

Resigned from the NSR (for 5
months) after the failure of the NSR to amalgamate with the London &
North Western Railway.

1862

2nd August - Ricardo died in
London

Ricardo was also a
director of the London and Westminster Bank and associated with railway
construction in Norway and Denmark.

Extract
from "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent" by John Ward, published
1843

‘We must carry forward the electioneering history of the
Borough to the conclusion of our work, embracing the general election of June 1841, consequent on the formation of Sir Robert Peel’s ministry.
Mr. Davenport, who had represented the Borough since the commencement of its franchise, having, for some time before the dissolution, made known his intention to retire whenever such an event took place, the Conservative party fixed upon the Hon. Fred. Dudly Ryder (a younger son
of the venerable Earl of Harrowbv) for his successor. The Liberal party, however, determined to contest the seat, and brought forward John Lewis Ricardo, Esq., a gentleman “without any special ground of connexion with the Borough or its interests,” which disqualification had been proclaimed before as an insuperable objection; but political congeniality, like charity, covers a multitude of sins, and the wealth of this gentleman’s family connexions obtained for him no small favour with the venal portion of the electors. The result of the poll placed him conspicuously in the foreground, and Mr. Ryder in the background. We are obliged again to notice (however unwillingly) acts of violence most disgraceful to that part of the population by which they were perpetrated.
On Wednesday, the 23rd June, whilst Mr. Alderman Copeland and Mr. Ryder were proceeding with three or four attendants on horseback, and without any display whatever, for the purpose of canvassing Fenton and Longton, they were followed by crowds of people, issuing from the neighbouring manufactories, who grossly insulted and menaced
them, and on their arrival at Longton, assailed them with stones and missiles, by which Mr. Copeland received some severe contusions, and one of his attendants had the back part of his head laid open. The canvassing party hereupon made the best of their way to the Town-Hall, where Mr. Rose and another magistrate happened to be at the same time